[jasjotbains]

Shifted from Chandigarh to TN due to job. Went to purchase an Activa.

Dealership 1 was selling me a buzzer (what?) without which apparently the indicators don't function properly (what*2?). Heard bad sale reviews about them so didn't go back.

Dealership 2 said that the metal body guard is MANDATORY for then recently launched Activa 5G, without which the scooter couldn't be sold. Took it since it's required anyhow. They tried to deceive me by planting an AMC but after reporting it here on TeamBHP and raising complaint with HMSI, they refunded the money.

Quick note - A buzzer costs Rs 60 at the dealership

[sramanat]

I was thinking about the Ford figo/freestyle incident. How different is it from a VP level guy talking to autocar india person in the sidelines of an autoshow? The fundamental design shift paradigm keeping in mind the fluidic motion of the apache marksman when he is on the hunt for a grizzly bear. The other older car, which kind of looks similar is tailored for the single mom on the milk run enroute to pick her kids from the daycare. Sure, he wears an expensive suit and sounds far more coherent and eloquent. Somehow when we hear the same from the humble sales associate, we are able to see through it. Thank gods for the honesty and lack of skills in the sales associates.

[r0nit7]

Thar doesn't need airbags, the other car would most certainly do if it bangs into a Thar
An SA who overheard me when I was discussing the cons of the last-Gen Thar with my friend a couple of years back.

[xcentrk]

Originally Posted by manish84

... I demonstrated to the salesman that I am doing a gentle push down on accelerator and still the sound is on higher side.
His reply was - Sir, the noise is coming because the music system is off. Once you switch on the music system there would be no noise

This is a gem! Couldn't control laughter.

Here is my experience. This was around 2015, Our Xylo was in for 50k service. We had an issue where if we keep the car parked just for overnight at winter, next day it wouldn't start. Not fair. If it was parked for longer duration we can understand but just for overnight? We need to pump the diesel to start it. My brother explained it to SA and the reply he gave was hilarious, even today we refer it as a joke when we have a chat.

Bro : <Explains the above scenario>
SA : Sir, this is Mahindra vehicle. Such issues are common and not to worry. You need to learn to live with that.
Bro :

He called me from Service Center, and I told him to get other things checked and bring the vehicle back. Meanwhile registered the complaint in MyHamesha App at around 8pm. The very next day, at around 7 am, my brother got a call from RM and he said he will visit our home to inspect about the issue. Guess what, the SA who said that rubbish was also there!

They inspected and found the issue, and the conversation went like this:

Bro : You guy yesterday said that this is "Mahindra" so we face such issues often and that we need to learn to live with that!
RM : Sorry for the ignorance of our SA. That is not the case and we will fix this within today. Just give us 1 day.
Bro : Ok. I want it by tonight.
RM : Sure, sir.

They proceed to took the vehicle when SA murmured this to my brother : "Mahindra is making tractors and SUVs. So only I said this is common. Why make such a big issue of that sir?"

Bro & Me :

[Aksfdb]

Intresting read. A few instances from my side:

Case 1: My parents decided to visit a Maruti showroom to buy a WagonR. Since I was in office, they called me and asked me the variant I would like to go for. I told my father that all i care is about the safety and he should go for the variant with ABS and Airbags.
My father did all the formalities and booked the top variant without the ABS and Airbags. When I asked him about this, he said that the Salesman had guided him to do so as according to him, these features were not important since they are needed only if someone drives at speeds above 80 KMPH. He even went further to tell my father that having these features in the car lead to more accidents because it instigates people to drive fast and Rash.

Needless to say, since everything was done and the delivery was promised the next day, we decided to let go of this.

Case 2: I receive a call from a new Maruti dealership for my insurance renewal wherein the lady quoted me an amount which was substantially lesser than what other dealerships were quoting despite having the same benefits and IDV. i reconfirmed all the details with her and even had the call recorded.
later when i went to the dealership for insurance renewal and met the lady, she backtracked on her words. I spoke to the person incharge and even played the recording, they were still very adamant and said that this was quoted in error. I retorted saying that all the details have been confirmed on the call by the lady like car number, make / Model / Year, Previous policy details, NCB etc. Finally when I threatened them to play the recording on the shop floor and make everyone aware of the scam, the manager agreed to honor the same but he also told the lady in front of my that the differential amount of INR 3700/- will be charged to her.
I had my father along with me and we didn't like this and we decided against renewing the insurance from them. We then went to our regular dealership to get it done.

Just to add on, every year during the time of insurance renewal these guys tell me the story that if we take the insurance online then it won't be honored in a cashless manner at any of the Maruti dealership across India. This year, I decided to go ahead and bought the online insurance which saved me approx. 30% on the insurance premium.

Case 3: when my father went to buy a Honda Shine for himself. Before leaving for office, I told him to get a version with CBS (Combi Braking System) as Honda advertises. My dad came back with Honda Shine with Disc + Drum brake. when i asked him regarding this he very nonchalantly said that he had told the sales person to get a Red coloured bike with CBS and the salesman had confirmed the same by showing a sticker on the bike mentioning Honda Shine CB125. The innocent look on my father's face melted my heart and we decided to keep the bike since my father's daily run on the bike is about 5 Kms. that too on the minor roads of the locality.

That was the day when my father declared that no vehicle in the house will be procured until I am physically present during the negotiations, finalization and delivery of the vehicle!

[TAHR]

I can recall two instances of SAs lying through their teeth, interestingly, both from 2015. While one was benign, the other resulted in considerable angst.

When I accompanied my uncle to a Maruti Suzuki dealership to pick up his Celerio AMT, I casually asked the SA when the Brezza was launching. Team-BHP and a host of other websites had confirmed it for that week. I was shocked when he not only claimed he had no knowledge of the launch but even denied anything like that even existed

I got the feeling that he was not exactly ignorant but maybe trained to respond that way. Perhaps dealerships consider a bird in the hand better than two in the bush, because here they had a confirmed sale. On the contrary, I believe that ultimately the dealership lost out on better margins on a higher priced model by quickly wrapping up the sale of a lower priced one.

Towards the end of that year, when I was picking up my Thar, I enquired about the service intervals, especially the first service. The SA, otherwise a very affable guy, insisted that it was only at 5k km.

When I specifically asked about the timeframe (most manufacturers indicate 1 month, 3 months, 6 months OR km, whichever is earlier) he very confidently said that is of no consequence, with the Thar only the km matters. Even the manual indicated just that, so I assumed the information to be correct.

It so happened that I couldn't use the vehicle frequently in the initial months, so when I finally landed up at the service centre for the first service at 5k km after about 8 months, they claimed that I would be losing 2 free services, as each service needs to be done at 3-month intervals if the vehicle has not crossed the specified km

When I asked the SA to intervene, as I had gone by his word, he brazenly lied and claimed that he had informed me about the timeframe, and in any case, it was not his problem anymore.

That incident left me fuming and totally disappointed in both the SA and the dealership. Ever since, I have been getting the services done at a different dealer.

[chandu]

A few years ago when looking to replace my Fortuner, I went in and looked at the BMW X1 and X3 cars.
The SA was trying to BS me from the moment he started talking and I was already tuning him out. was going on an on about how BMW's are the best cars in the world and bla bla bla.
We then went on a TD with an X3, he was going on an on about the unique adaptive suspension (which was pretty standard in that class of car, the Q5, XC60 all of them had it), then he was like the suspension knows from the Map data where the roads are good and where there are potholes and the car will automatically setup the suspension to soft or hard as per the map data. At that point i had to laugh loudly and the other driver in the back also was smiling when i looked in the RVM.
I had to tell the guy that I know enough about the car and he did not have to try and impress me with his "knowledge".
overall he was pretty useless and never followed up with pricing and discounts and I ended up buying a Volvo.
Once i was done with the purchase he was calling repeatedly asking if I was interested and that he would give me a bigger discount! he didnt seem to understand that I had already purchased another car and would not be in the market for many more years.
Cheers

[AmitSapre]

Dec 2019 : Elite Ford , Mahadevapura, Bangalore

My negotiations for Ford Aspire 1.5L Automatic with the SA was complete and I decided on a specific date for my booking.
The SA guy for fine with that date. A night before booking date, SA called up and said that he would like to take booking right away
and wanted the booking amount transferred to dealers account immediately, otherwise the car might get booked by someone else.
I felt fishy in his behavior and didn't bother to transfer amount. I told him I will come to showroom tomorrow as planned.

The next day, I went to showroom. the concerned person was missing, hence I went to helpdesk and shared my purpose of visit.
The helpdesk guy said, the car is already booked and I can go for a new booking request. I smiled and have never visited the place.
The SA never turned up and neither was I intrested.

That was the last time, I ever thought of owning a ford car.

[BlackPearl]

There have been many such occasions over the years, but I have forgotten most of them. There is one which I will never forget I believe. It was 2006 or 2007 and my friends and I had gone to a Fiat showroom in Kolkata to checkout the Palio Adventure. The sales advisor was going through the list in the brochure and pointed out that this vehicle has ABS. I asked what that is and how is it useful. She thought for a few seconds and came up with an answer - "Sir, ABS means Absolute Boot Space". This car has a huge boot and went on show us how big it is and that it can gobble up loads of luggage.
After this, one guy came and relieved the lady of her duties saying that he will take this forward and answer all our queries. Then he whispered to us once the lady was out of the scene, "I have heard what madam was saying, she does not know anything. ABS means Anti Braking System".

[Stribog]

For some reason I was not getting pm alerts, and missed the hilarious replies. I thought mine were bad but you guys have some howlarious tales. The funniest though in my books was the i20 one. Laughing uncontrollably imagining the OP and his stunned look.

The second prize is absolute bootspace. Lmao just wildly funny

[Astraholic]

This happened to me at a motorcycle showroom a while back. I had accompanied my friend to buy a CB Hornet from Vayalat Honda. There were many sales executives and we were immediately assigned a female SA. She was very friendly and said the bike was not in stock and there was no TD bike as well. We then asked her when the next lot is coming and she said she has no idea. Ok. Now here comes the whopper. We were about to leave the showroom and we gave our contact info and she gave her card. We told her let us know when the bike will arrive and we will make the payment immediately. She said with a weird smile, "Saar, I will let you know when the bike arrives but if at all I forget to call you, you have my card so call me"
My jaw dropped hearing the last line! Now the customer has to do the follow up in automotive sales ! Thankfully we never got a call from her ever again !

[architect_santo]

I've had my fair share of bit, when they try to convince me things they want to push. More than their lack of knowledge, I would say its lack of their maturity and training. Cause when I went with my Uncle to look at BMW the sales executive was composed, he did not bad mouth other products or say random things about their product; rather he focused on their product's features and capabilities; insisted on a long test drive, took me to their service center and even invited me to visit BMW assembly plant in Chennai.

And when I told him that my Uncle has sealed the deal with Mercedes he asked us about the model and variant and told us to consider them for their next purchase; he said he believes that a average car owner shall replace his car for 5 times in their lifetime, and "I hope we shall be your forthcoming choice, hereafter".

[Gaur]

Reminds me of a incident from 2008-09.

My friend was looking for a hatchback with ABS (compulsory).
Zeroed in on the Swift.

One day walks into the Maruti-Suzuki showroom and directly ask for the quote for the variant with ABS, he was ready to book the vehicle on the spot, no test drive no features explanation needed.

Now this was more then a decade back when very few people would ask for a vehicle with ABS more so while booking a Maruti.

Apparently the ABS variant of the Swift had a long wait period as it was made on request since hardly anyone bought it (as per the S.A).

My friend was very particular about this requirement and insisted on the ABS variant, now comes the LOL part from the S.A "Sir sab gaadi mein thoda thoda ABS hota hai" (sir all cars have little bit of ABS in them) you can book the next variant, don't worry.

Friend walked out and bought an i20.

[DarthVeda]

I always make an informed purchase when it comes to vehicle, as in, my mind is made up when i go for TD, so most often than or not, I really don't listen to what the SA has to tell, and this was the case when I booked the nexon EV and the SA said
"Sir, don't worry, you will get 250km in the city easily and 200+ on highway"

I feel that all Nexon EV owners will agree with me on this one

[lionell]

Went in to the Nexa showroom in Jodhpur and asked about the XL6 automatic. The guy says the city doesn't see many automatic buyers so they don't have a TD car in automatic. He gets out the price list and says anyways the automatic is an 'AMT'. I am shocked and indeed in the price list the XL6 Automatic is listed as XL6 Automatic (AMT).

I told them its a 4 speed TC unit and not an AMT, SA had no clue. Manager had no clue. Surprised at the Nexa Experience they try to deliver in these tier 2, tier 3 cities. It just lacks at many fronts.